I am currently studying bumble bee communities across a landscape gradient (rural to urban) along Colorado’s Front Range. My research examines how species respond to varying degrees of urbanization, land management practices, and conservation interventions, with a particular focus on population genetic health. In summer 2025, I conducted community surveys and applied genetic mark-recapture methods to estimate colony density across multiple species, assess genetic diversity, and evaluate levels of inbreeding.

The rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) was once widespread across the eastern United States but has experienced a dramatic decline and range contraction in recent decades. A recent study (Mola et al. 2024) identified three genetically distinct clusters among remaining populations, aligned along an east-to-west gradient. I am currently analyzing genetic structure from pre-decline museum specimens (1960–1990) to determine whether this pattern emerged as a result of the species' decline or reflects long-standing genetic differentiation that predates it.

As an undergraduate and post-baccalaureate researcher at the University of Minnesota, I studied butterfly-parasite interactions involving Pteromalus parasitoid wasps and tachinid flies. 

Relevant Publications: Tachinid Fly (Diptera: Tachinidae) Parasitoids of Danaus plexippus (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae)